Give Generously

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. It's good to have you here this day, and we do, as we said at the beginning, we remember this day, 9-11. And, wow, 21 years ago? Is that possible? Yeah, yeah, I remember my kids, well, my one child, he was only a year and a half when it happened. Isn't that amazing? Now he's 22. He's still a kid. But, no, it's amazing. That was one of those days you remember where you exactly were when you heard the news or saw it for the first time. And we've had a few of those over the years. I remember, I'm a little older than some of you, so Challenger was another one, way back when, right? I was actually in Stewart, Florida for that, and we remember that. It shows us the frailty of life, if anything else, along with the tragedy of the violence that is in the human heart. Now, I'm being very philosophical about it in that sense, but I think we just have to realize that's the brokenness in our world. And, thank God, we've got a Savior who heals and is going to reconcile and bring a lot of good, even out of the imperfections and the brokenness and all that's going on. It's amazing how God's perfect plan works with imperfect people. Wow. So, today we are in our sixth week of what we call the series on vulnerability. Nobody likes to be vulnerable, but we look for it in everyone else because we want people who are approachable. Vulnerability doesn't mean weakness, not necessarily. It means openness, willingness to hear, willingness to let me be, willingness to not have to play a game and kind of keep the guard up. Vulnerability opens us up to that. What's amazing is Paul. I'm just shocked at Paul and his ministry. He's not one of these supermen who've got his act together. He shows all of his weaknesses. He shows all of the things that he's struggling with throughout life. This letter more than almost any other in 2 Corinthians, as we're walking through it, he lets it all out and lets people see it, not because he's trying to do some catharsis. It's not for his own therapy. It's for the fact that God uses imperfect people in his perfect plans. That means we all, thank God, we all can fit into that, right? We all can fit into that tonight, today, tonight, today, whatever. It is. Somewhere it's night. But today we're going to be looking at this aspect of vulnerability in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And it's not within the Corinthians. That's the sad part. It is within churches that Paul brings up from Macedonia, which is northern Greece. Thessalonica, Philippi, Berea, probably these churches. So we're going to be looking at the fact that vulnerability is about not just simply giving, but it's being open to others in such a way that even in our giving we make ourselves vulnerable and we give beyond sometimes so that we become even needy in our giving. Isn't that interesting? I think a lot of people think, I'll give when I am, got my act together. When I've got enough, then I'll give. And I'll give out of my surplus. Paul says that he'll never get there. He'll never get there. We give even in our neediness. Because we're trying to be the body of Christ where we are interdependent, not independent. So we're going to be reading 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verses 1 through 9. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urge Titus that he, as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love is also genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Now, 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter 9, we could read the whole thing. It's actually the longest, most detailed, nuanced section in all of the Bible on generosity and giving. And it's amazing in its nuance, because Paul doesn't list, okay, rule number 1, rule number 2, rule number 3, check those boxes off, everything's good. He doesn't list things like that at all in here. He gives the example, he's opening up himself, he's opening up, he's praying that the Corinthians are open to a whole different way of life than what they actually had. And we're going to learn in this message today, these th...